Federal worker safety regulations should be enforced at small farms

Too many of our nation’s workplaces are still hazardous to the health and safety of workers. Farming is the most hazardous of them all. On Feb. 5, an Ithaca man died from injuries he sustained when he became entangled in an auger-type device while working on a Tompkins County dairy farm.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2011, there were 24 fatal work-related injuries per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting. This was the highest fatality rate for any industry.

Despite this high fatality rate, agriculture is like the “wild west” when it comes to safety regulation because Congress has imposed special restrictions that exempt small- and medium-sized farms that employ 10 or fewer workers from enforcement of most federal health and safety rules.

So while almost any private sector worker in the United States knows that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is there with regulations, inspectors, penalties for violations and training requirements that it will enforce as needed, farm workers on small farms have no such guaranteed protections.

Though there are many responsible farm owners out there, how many of you would not drive faster on our nation’s highways if you knew no police-manned radar guns were lurking in the distance?

We need to get OSHA back into farm safety to ensure that all farm workers are fully protected. Tell your congressional representative to work to ensure that OSHA is enabled to enforce its regulations at all our nation’s workplaces, including small farms.